Enewsletter

Enewsletter • December 12, 2007

True human goodness,
in all its purity and freedom,
can come to the fore only when
its recipient has no power. Humanity's
true moral test, its fundamental
test (which lies deeply buried
from view), consists of its
attitude towards those who are
at its mercy: animals. And in
this respect humankind has suffered
a fundamental debacle, a debacle
so fundamental that all others
stem from it.-Milan Kundera, The
Unbearable Lightness of Being

Notes from Vegan
Outreach

On Being Fully Human

People
often seek to rationalize eating
animals with the claim that humans
are "superior" to these
other animals. But what is the real
nature of this "superiority"?
From a recent Time Magazinecover
story:

"We're a species that is capable
of almost dumbfounding kindness....
And at the same time, we slaughter
one another.... That we're also
the lowest, cruelest, most blood-drenched
species is our shame -- and our
paradox.

"The deeper that science drills
into the substrata of behavior,
the harder it becomes to preserve
the vanity that we are unique among
Earth's creatures. We're the only
species with language, we told ourselves
-- until gorillas and chimps mastered
sign language. We're the only one
that uses tools then -- but that's
if you don't count otters smashing
mollusks with rocks or apes stripping
leaves from twigs and using them
to fish for termites.

"What does, or ought to, separate
us then is our highly developed
sense of morality, a primal understanding
of good and bad, of right and wrong,
of what it means to suffer not only
our own pain--something anything
with a rudimentary nervous system
can do--but also the pain of others.
That quality is the distilled essence
of what it means to be human."

Each
of us chooses what will be our essence
-- and legacy.

It is easy to accept ignorance
-- simply refuse to question the
blood-drenched status quo and unquestioningly
accept the prejudices of our parents
and peers. As the saying goes, all
it takes for evil to triumph is
for good people to do nothing. Like
many others, we could turn away
from the realities of modern agribusiness,
and pay others to serve us the fruits
of systematic brutality.

Or we can choose real freedom --
the kind that comes with knowledge
and responsibility.

Only by embracing our inherent
ethics, and extending it to all
fellow feeling beings, can we be
fully human. Only through a mindful
existence, embodied by compassionate
choices, can we realize our fullest
potential.

Notes from Our
Members

In
Oct '06 my girlfriend
was handed Even If You Like
Meat at Foothill College in
Los Altos Hills, CA. I was instantly
intrigued with the message "just
cutting one's meat consumption in
half would help." Such a minimal
self-sacrifice would be worth trying.
Within a week of trying meatless
meals, I was so shocked at how easy
it was that I decided to eliminate
meat entirely. What started as an
experiment in simply halving my
meat consumption, resulted in my
instantly becoming a vegetarian.
I've been vegetarian for over a
year.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp The winning
message of "even if you continue
to eat meat, reducing your meat
consumption would help spare the
suffering" is what prompted
me to change my own practices. Since
then I have tried to pass on that
message to other people I know and
meet.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Next
I am curious to explore a vegan
lifestyle.-MZ, 12/9/07

Drew Wilson leaflets at Holy
Cross; photo by Mike Benedetti.

At Benson High School,
the kids were shocked by the leaflets.
They talked about them with their
friends, they shoved them in their
friends' faces, they made their
friends come up to me to get their
own copies, and a lot of them screamed
as they looked at the leaflet!-RI, 12/8/07

At UC San Diego,
one of a trio of 60+ year-old professors
asked me for a leaflet stating,
"What you have probably is
not for my demographic." Then
after reading the cover, "Oh,
it is definitely for our demographic!"
Each professor took one plus three
more for "some colleagues"
and an A
Meaningful Life. Another bio
professor wants me to give a talk
at his HERO seminar about people
making a difference in environmental
causes. -Stewart Solomon, 11/28/07

Leafleting at the Dane
Cook Comedy Show today,
I met a guy who worked at the Warped
Tour in San Antonio last year. He
said that he saw a lot of people
decide to become vegetarian at that
concert because of the Why Vegans
we distributed.-Eugene Khutoryansky,
12/7/07

At Laney College,
I leafleted a group of three students.
I heard the male student say to
the female who refused the Even
If, "You should read that
booklet. It will really make you
want to cut down
your meat consumption. That's what
it did for me." When I handed
an Even If to one student
he said, "Oh yeah. I've seen
this. It's a really good booklet.
I got 4 or 5 of my friends to stop
eating meat with it."
-Miranda Robbins, 12/5/07

Miranda leaflets at DeAnza
College; photo by Victor Tsou.

At CSU Fresno, a
professor cheered as she received
the Even If. When she passed
by a second time during a later
class change, she offered to distribute
the lit in her classroom. A student
walking by pointed at the Even
If and said, "You know,
that book really got to me,"
while another said, "That's
a really good book. My brother works
in one of those slaughterhouses.
Before I read this, I didn't think
much about it. But now, I can't
see how anyone could possibly do
this to the animals." He then
went on to make the connection between
the suffering of farmed animals
and people who are suffering. We
both agreed that no one deserves
to suffer regardless of the form
they inhabit.-Victor Tsou, 11/29/07

At the University of
Virginia, one man
talked about how it was pretty much
impossible for a vegetarian to get
an adequate supply of B12 through
totally "natural" means.
I mentioned that I got to the university
today by car, that I communicate
with most people through email,
and that I see nothing wrong with
getting my B12 through fortified
foods and supplementation. I mentioned
that I'm fine not living a totally
"natural" life given how
the world is, and I (he interrupts
me), "just do what you can
to reduce the amount of suffering."
I told him that was exactly right.
He really liked this approach. -Jon Camp, 12/4/07

Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the suffering of farmed animals by promoting informed, ethical eating.